Climate Politics

What environmental policy could we expect from President Colbert?

Stephen Colbert has officially thrown his hat in the ring for definitely possibly considering a run for president. He's already out-polling Jon Huntsman! So what kind of environmental policy platform could we expect from a President Colbert?

Congressional staffers will stop betting on wildfire destruction

We here at Grist mock a lot of people. But we don't always manage to mock some sense into them. Which is why we're pretty psyched about the response to Sarah Laskow's feature story revealing that congressional staffers were making deadly wildfires into a fun office pool: 

McKie Campbell, the [Senate Energy and Natural Resources] committee’s Republican staff director, said the contest has been stopped.

“It will never happen again,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “It was in no way indicative of disrespect for any of the folks who put their lives on the line to battle the fires.”

Let’s make fun of Rick Santorum talking about climate change

Is it getting boring to make fun of Rick Santorum? I don't really care, because frankly the dude is both a menace and an ignoramus and that is comedy gold even if he didn't look like the love child of Ryan Reynolds and a turtle. (Yes, I recycled that joke, but it's TRUE.) It's all very well to talk about frothy mixtures and whatnot, but opportunities to mock Santorum go well beyond his Google problem. Although seriously, does anyone else feel sort of dirty when they type his name, like they should be writing "Sant*rum" or something?

Anyway, Treehugger found a doozy of a quote from Sir Mixture-a-lot about global warming. Let's mock it! (Note to Rick and adherents: We are not in the "then they laugh at you" stage of Gandhi's, or whoever's, hierarchy. We are just laughing at you.)

Koch fiends: AFP’s favorite members of Congress

Americans for Prosperity gave five senators and 39 representatives perfect scores for their votes to uphold the Koch agenda in Congress.

Obama makes a trip to the EPA

President Obama and the EPA have not had an entirely uncomplicated relationship during his tenure, but in the face of a GOP candidate field that is almost uniformly anti-environment, the president is throwing his lot in with clean air and water regulations. He's making a trip to EPA headquarters this afternoon to thank employees for their work, notably the new mercury standards.

Campaign dreams: A GOP primary race where climate matters

On the final day of New Hampshire campaigning, can an anonymous donor get GOP candidates to care about the climate with cold, hard cash? Find out.

Chief of Staff Bill Daley resigns, environment rejoices

Greens have been singing "won't you go home, Bill Daley" for a while (turn-of-the-century music jokes, anyone? No?). The now-former chief of staff was the guy responsible for kneecapping EPA smog regulations, and he was generally considered to be in the administration merely as a sop to Big Business. So now he's resigning, and probably the next guy will be an improvement? We hope?

Why the 2012 Farm Bill is a climate bill

The Environmental Working Group says climate change activists should be concerned about proposed cuts to farm bill conservation programs, which would be the carbon-emissions equivalent of adding 2 million cars a year to America's roads.

Boston Globe endorses Huntsman, cites climate and energy views

Jon Huntsman, the least crazy GOP presidential candidate, scored an endorsement from the largest newspaper in the state Mitt Romney once governed.

These Republicans believe in climate change. And they vote

Watching this excellent short film by James West about that rare-but-not-as-rare-as-you-think species, the Republican who believes the science of climate change, I was reminded that there was a time in U.S. politics when science was not a partisan issue.